FBI Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Fidel Urbina Arrested

FBI Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Fidel Urbina Arrested

After 17 years on the run, a Chicago man who is one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is now in custody, announced Michael J. Anderson, special agent in charge of the FBI Chicago Field Office. Mr. Anderson is joined by Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) Eddie Johnson; Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart; United States Attorney Zachary Fardon; and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez in announcing this arrest.

Fidel Urbina was taken into custody on September 22, 2016 without incident just outside Valle de Zaragoza, Chihuahua, Mexico. He was apprehended by PFM (Policía Federal Ministerial) Interpol. Urbina was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in June 2012. He will remain in custody pending extradition proceedings.

“Fidel Urbina was wanted for his alleged role in two brutal attacks directed against innocent women. Many family members have waited a long time for this day to come and they deserve the opportunity to face the accused in a court of law. The FBI is extremely appreciative of our law enforcement partners in Mexico, as well as our local, state, and federal partners, for their tremendous cooperation and collaboration in the capture of this Top Ten Fugitive,” said Mr. Anderson.

Urbina, 41, whose last known address was in the 2100 block of South Fairfield in Chicago, is charged in Cook County Circuit Court with the brutal sexual assault and murder of one woman and the beating and sexual assault of a second woman. He has been the subject of a worldwide manhunt since 1999 after being charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

In March 1998, Urbina was arrested by the CPD and later charged with kidnapping, brutally beating, and raping a woman in Chicago. Subsequent to his arrest, Urbina was released on bond pending his trial in Cook County Circuit Court. While out on bond, Urbina was also suspected of assaulting and bludgeoning to death 22-year-old Gabriella Torres. Her body was found in the trunk of an automobile, which had been abandoned in an alley in the 2300 block of West 50th Street in Chicago. The vehicle had been set on fire, and Torres’ body was badly burned. Attempts to locate and apprehend Urbina by local police were unsuccessful, as he had apparently fled the state. On July 20, 1999, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Urbina, and, on August 26, 2006, a provisional arrest warrant was signed by a Mexican federal magistrate.

“I'd like to thank our federal partners at the FBI for their outstanding work in apprehending Fidel Urbina, whose merciless actions against innocent victims robbed one family of a daughter and left a permanent scar on a woman fortunate enough to survive his attack,” said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. “Mr. Urbina’s capture should serve as a warning to violent offenders what can be accomplished through the combined weight of federal, state, and local law enforcement efforts.”

The search for Urbina was coordinated by the Chicago FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force, which is composed of FBI special agents, detectives from the Chicago Police Department, and Cook County Sheriff’s Police investigators.

Urbina was the 497th person to be placed on the FBI’s “en Most Wanted Fugitives list, which was established in 1950.

The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.